corporate wiki: success factors?

 >> b) What's required in terms of basic structure?

>That's a tough one.

That is what I see is the problem.  Where I work small
groups set up a
wiki and learn to use the wiki as a group with few problems
since the
wiki admin is typically in the group.  But when an
enterprise-wide wiki
is set up many come to it and have trouble determining first
of all that
it is a wiki and they can add content, then have trouble
determining how
to create a page, then how to place it within the wiki's
structure.  We
use categories in one of our enterprise wikis and a Main
Page that is
nothing but instructions.  I've concluded that designing a
wiki is as
much if not more complicated than designing a web page.  But
like a web
page it needs to stand on its own and users will rely the
Main Page to
guide them.

The best way I've found for designing a useful wiki is to
look at other
wikis.  Wikipedia is an awful example I think.  But its so
famous that
people who want to add content are motivated to learn it. 
That is not
the case in most offices.  But there are many other wikis to
look at and
get ideas from.  One of my favorites is
www.cookbookwiki.com.  They
state at the top of the Main Page that it is a web page that
you can
edit.  On the sidebar they have a "Resources" menu
with links to setting
up an account and creating content.  If you follow the
"Create Content"
link there are instructions on what to do to create content,
including
searching existing content first so you don't duplicate. 
Its
handholding but I think that is what needs to be designed
into the wiki
pages to guide the helpless new wiki users along and make
adding content
easier.  Otherwise you will end up with a small number of
contributors
to your wiki and their content scattered randomly in the
wiki, lots of
orphan pages with duplicate content, and I have one of our
earlier wikis
to prove it. 

So, in short, use other well designed wikis you find as
guides and
before releasing your wiki, have some novices try to use it.
 This user
testing should show where problems are and where
improvements can be
made.  

-Jim

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>
> I've concluded that designing a wiki is as
> much if not more complicated than designing a web page.
I'm afraid I'll have to agree there; I've realized that my
initial hope 
that the wiki will be self-organizing from the start was
actually quite 
naive....
> The best way I've found for designing a useful wiki is
to look at other
> wikis.  Wikipedia is an awful example I think.  But its
so famous that
> people who want to add content are motivated to learn
it.  That is not
> the case in most offices.  But there are many other
wikis to look at and
> get ideas from.  One of my favorites is
www.cookbookwiki.com.
I agree, Wikipedia really isn't the best example in terms of
structure.
I realized this when trying to pull some content from their
help section 
for use in our wiki - that almost made my head spin!
(Disclaimer: I love Wikipedia and couldn't live without it.)
So I'll definitely take a good look at cookbookwiki.com -
thanks for the 
tip!


-- Frederik
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On 11/28/06, Frederik Dohr <fdg001gmx.net> wrote:
> >
> > I've concluded that designing a wiki is as
> > much if not more complicated than designing a web
page.
> I'm afraid I'll have to agree there; I've realized that
my initial hope
> that the wiki will be self-organizing from the start
was actually quite
> naive....

Organizing a Wiki is a job for one or more persons who are
enthousiastic about wiki and know something about the
content and will
actually once in a while go through the wiki to bring the
order and
organization to things. Once users see the new organization
(and if it
is one that works) they will bring in new documents to that
structure.

In so far Wikipedia actually *is* a good example. But I
agree that
there are now so many organizational elements in the
wikipedia that I
can't find the one I need anymore. But that may be a side
effect of
having a 'general interest' wiki instead of a special
interest wiki.
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